Wondering how you can allow apps to be downloaded and opened from anywhere on MacOS Sonoma or Ventura? You may have noticed the ability to select “Allow applications downloaded from anywhere” has been removed by default in MacOS Sonoma & Ventura and other modern versions of MacOS. This does not mean it’s impossible to download … Read More
Rarely, if you have attempted to open a package installer or disk image on the Mac, you may find a stuck “Verifying” window, and you may also notice a task called CoreServicesUIAgent taking up a lot of system resources in Activity Monitor. This verification process is normal, but CoreServicesUIAgent getting stuck is not, so let’s … Read More
If you are attempting to open apps downloaded from the web or elsewhere on modern versions of macOS like Big Sur, you may see an error message that says something like ‘”AppName.app” can’t be opened because it was not downloaded from the App Store.’ Below that warning also states “Your security preferences allow installation of … Read More
Need to know what version of Gatekeeper and Xprotect are installed on a Mac? You can find this information through the command line of Mac OS. GateKeeper, MRT (Malware Removal Tool), and XProtect are all built-in features of Mac OS designed to prevent malware threats and other nefarious software from being installed or used on … Read More
Gatekeeper in MacOS is now stricter than ever, defaulting to only allow options for apps downloaded from either the App Store or the App Store and identified developers. Advanced Mac users may wish to allow a third option, which is the ability to open and allow apps downloaded from anywhere in macOS Ventura, macOS Monterey, … Read More
Mac users may find that a system update, installer, or package (pkg) can get completely stuck in a verification sequence, with a pop-up alert that says “Verifying ‘name.pkg’…” while showing the Gatekeeper icon and a progress bar that never updates. The effect is the package or installer won’t run as it never completes verification, making … Read More
Code signed applications allow security conscious users to verify the creator and hash of a particular app to help confirm it has not been corrupted or tampered with. This is rarely necessary for average Mac users, particularly those who obtain their software from the Mac App Store or other trusted sources since the apps are … Read More
Gatekeeper is a security feature built into Mac OS X which helps to prevent unauthorized applications and code from executing on a Mac. Most users have encountered Gatekeeper before when they go to open an application downloaded from the internet, where you see an “App can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer” … Read More
Typically if you want to have an application launch approved by the GateKeeper feature on a Mac, you right-click on the unidentified developers application and choose “Open”, or go through System Preferences to bypass Gatekeeper that way. Another option is to manually add application approvals and exceptions to Gatekeeper by turning to the command line … Read More
Though most Mac users will want to keep Gatekeeper enabled for security purposes, some advanced users find that Gatekeeper is overly zealous in preventing third party apps from being used in macOS and Mac OS X. While it’s easy to turn off Gatekeeper through the System Preferences on a Mac, another option is to disable … Read More
Gatekeeper is an application level security feature on the Mac that aims to prevent unauthorized and unidentified apps from being launched in Mac OS X, thereby preventing potential security problems like exploits or trojans from running on a Mac. The feature is most often encountered when an app has been downloaded from the web, and … Read More
Mac OS X defaults to preventing applications from unidentified developers or sources from being launched. You’ll discover the message in Mac OS when you try to launch a Mac app that didn’t come from a verified source or from the Mac App Store, and you’ll get an alert dialog that says “[App name] can’t be … Read More
The malware protecting Mac OS X Security Update will automatically download and update it’s malware definitions list from Apple, but if you’re like me you probably want to know how to manually check if the malware list is updated or not. We’ll show you where the malware list is located on Mac, and how to … Read More
A recent anti-malware Mac OS X security update was released that defaults to automatically downloading and maintaining an active definitions list of known Mac OS X malware threats. This list comes from Apple and is likely a very small file that is transmitted to your Mac, imposing minimal bandwidth usage. For 99.99% of users, you … Read More
Mac OS X warns users in a variety of different ways if they have downloaded a file from the internet to their Mac, with a popup message that says something along the lines of “[NAME] is an application downloaded from the internet. Are you sure you want to open it?”, or even “this application can’t … Read More
